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Field service management businesses often measure their success with the metric First-Time Fix Rate (FTFR) also known as First-Call Resolution. This crucial benchmark helps FSM businesses identify the pain points in their overall process and team.

Below, we have highlighted several pointers that will help you understand the First Time Fix Rate and some strategies that can help businesses improve it.

These strategies have been listed after we identified our client’s pain points and how FIESA has helped them improve the same.

What is First-Time Fix Rate?

FTFR is a metric that calculates and displays the rate at which field service workers can resolve issues on the first visit.

This metric is triggered only when a field service technician completes a job first, without causing any delays or cancellations, and has the right information, expertise, and tools.

The end goal of keeping an eye on this metric is to achieve customer satisfaction. FTFRs directly impact customer experience, eventually, driving customer retention.

How to calculate First-Time Fix Rate?

Now that we know what first-time fix rate is, let’s also know how to calculate it:

To determine the first-time fix rate for your business, divide the number of jobs completed on the first visit by the total number of jobs, simple.

Moreover, this metric can help you determine the performance of your technicians. Is there a knowledge or skill gap, or do they need any sort of training?

Benchmark of First-Time Fix Rate:

Research shows that mobile service providers’ average first-time fix rate is 77.8%. However, the top-performing companies maintained rates around 98%.

Of course, these numbers vary as every industry has its methods of determining success rates.

Why is First-Time Fix Rate?

Field service management companies bank on customer experience. It is obvious for any service-based company that their first impression counts, this idea can make or break the business.

24% of clients who have a positive first impression will come back for an average of two years. On the other hand, a negative experience can make the business lose that customer forever.

That means, your company has only one opportunity to impress the client with your customer service.

Today, customers prioritize convenience, and expectations are higher across all industries. Field service businesses face tough competition in this area. If a field service company has a low first-time fix rate, especially compared to its competitors, the risk of failing is quite high.

A recent study found that companies with an FTFR of more than 70% achieved an 86% customer retention rate, which is a direct result of your customer satisfaction rate (CSAT).

What Negatively Affects First-Time Fix Rates?

FTFRs are affected by the following factors:

• Resolution was only temporary
• Parts unavailability
• Customer/asset not available for service
• Improper diagnosis at the time of dispatch
• Technician did not have the right skills

Benefits of Higher FTFR:

Cost Reduction and Increased Profitability:

A higher first-time fix rate (FTFR) means your field technicians need to make fewer site visits, saving time and money on repeat trips.

Additionally, improving FTFR can boost customer retention, reducing the need to spend resources on acquiring new customers.

Improved Productivity:

Using FTFR as a KPI helps get more done quickly by ensuring problems are fixed on the first visit, freeing up time for other tasks.

This allows technicians to focus on first-time visits, speeding up responses to future service requests.

Enhanced Efficiency:

Achieving a high FTFR demonstrates to clients your commitment to quality service, which leads to better customer satisfaction scores (CSAT). This helps in retaining customers and reducing the risk of losing them.

Understanding the impact of poor first-time fix rates is one thing, but knowing how to improve them is another important step.

How to achieve or improve First-Time Fix Rate?

Assign Technicians with the Right Expertise:

It is frustrating for customers to see the technician doesn’t have the right expertise, tools, or spare parts. But before that, it is essential to derive as much information as possible about the issue. This will help in choosing the right technician, won’t it?

Choose Smarter Ways of Assigning Jobs:

To put this simply, mobile apps or field service management software to be precise can play a pivotal role in ensuring the right technicians with the respective expertise and tools are assigned for the job.

FSM business software can record the issues and send a report to the technician so that they can choose the job to complete it efficiently.

Your FTFR will be enhanced by equipping your technicians with mobile devices that grant them access to:

• Asset/Work History
• Process and Workflow documentation
• Knowledge Management

Improve Inventory:

In today’s competitive market, you risk losing clients if competitors can provide everything needed and you can’t. Technicians can no longer say, “We need to order a new part” and make customers wait another week.

Having the right parts available is crucial. To achieve high first-time fix rates, ensure your inventory management is efficient.

Improve Communication Between Technicians and Managers:

Field technicians often face issues due to incorrect problem diagnoses. This can lead to repeated visits if they can’t identify the issue. Getting it right the first time saves time, reduces costs, and elevates customer satisfaction.

Ensuring seamless communication between technicians and the office is key to achieving this.

Real-Time Visibility:

Having real-time communication and updates sent to customers can help achieve greater customer satisfaction. Real-time reporting, location of the technician, invoicing, and feedback, all can elevate retention and increase FTFR.

How can FIESA – Field Service Automation Software help elevate FTFR?

FIESA stands on 4 major benefits for FSM businesses:

• Reduced Infrastructure Cost
• 15% Gain in Technician efficiency and Turnaround Time
• Ecosystem helped automation with an overall 98% accuracy
• Service Case FTFR increased by 48%

FIESA brings endless power and flexibility. It can adapt to essential evolution to keep you ahead of your competition. Integrations, IOT, AI/ML, Interoperability, and more.

It is built on Dynamics 365 and hence can be easily connected with powerful tools like Power BI, Power Automate, WhatsApp, and more.

Its AI and IoT Capabilities keep a close eye on the health of the equipment and via predictive analysis, send out reports that will help technicians take early steps to resolve the issue.

Want to learn more about FIESA? Our team will help you take a complete tour of the software.
Book a demo now.